TITLE:
Economic Impact of COVID-19 on the European Tourism Sector with Special View on Croatian Tourism
AUTHORS:
Dragan Kovačević
KEYWORDS:
Tourism, Croatia, COVID-19, Europe
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Economy,
Vol.11 No.10,
October
30,
2020
ABSTRACT: From the mid-twentieth century, the share of service sector increased from 60% to 80% and amongst service,
tourism is fast-growing industry. Globally, tourism is an important component
of the service economy, representing one-third of international trade in
services. This sector is the import engine of economic growth in many charts as
globally, and it is a very dynamic and growing sector in the last decades.
Europe is the world’s most visited destination with more than 700 million arrivals,
representing 51% of the all arrivals. Amongst EU Members, the most attractive
destinations are France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece; but
nevertheless, Croatia recorded a remarkable increase in tourist arrivals.
Tourism sector has experienced a major growth in recent years. However, this
sector is very vulnerable because tourist products represent luxury goods
depending on many economic and social factors. Besides the fact mentioned
above, the latest trends about coronavirus will set out many tourism companies
in an unenviable situation, dropping revenues among
the lowest level in history. In this paper, author estimate potential losses in European tourism sector under circumstances of closed borders. In
addition, less pessimistic scenario has been forecasted, achieving the level of
30% of the previous year.